Shampoo tray and supporting and rigidifying means therefor



April 5, 1966 J. M. HARGRAVES ETAL 3,244,387

SHAMPOO TRAY AND SUPPORTING AND RIGIDIFYING MEANS THEREFOR Filed 001;. 7, 1963 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 PRIOR ART Josephine M. Hargraves Richard J How/and 12' INVENTORS and WW Fm April 5, 1966 J. M. HARGRAVES ETAL 3,244,387

SHAMPOO TRAY AND SUPPORTING AND RIGIDIFYING MEANS THEREFOR Filed Oct.v 7, 1963 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Joseph/he M. Hargraves Richard J How/and I IN VEN TORS AM, Fm

April 1966 I J. M. HARGRAVES ETAL 4,387

SHAMPOO TRAY AND SUPPORTING AND RIGIDIFYING MEANS THEREFOR Filed Oct. '7, 1963 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Josephine M. Hargraves Richard .1 Ho w/and II 1 N VENTO R5 United States Patent Ofifice 3,244,387 Patented Apr. 5, 1966 3,244,387 SHAMPOG TRAY AND SUPPORTING AND RIGIDIFYING MEANS THEREFOR Josephine M. Hargraves and Richard J. Howiand H,

Evergreen Park, Ill. (both of 4258 Schofield Way,

North Highlands, Calif.)

Filed Oct. 7, 1963, Ser. No. 314,297 3 Claims. (Cl. 24827.5)

The present invention relates to practical, reliable and satisfactorily usable means which is expressly designed and structurally and functionally adapted to assist one in supporting a shampoo tray in a desirably inclined position atop a regular sink so that it assumes and maintains a given drainage position and does not have to be held by hand.

Hair washing and shampooing practices vary in keeping with the customer service offered in currently usable beauty salons, hairdressing establishments and the like. However, it can be said that, generally speaking, elongated shampoo trays and boards are popularly used and, when in use, function to cause the drainage to gravitate and empty in one manner or another into the sump or receptacle portion of the usual wash basin or sink as the case may be. The plastic or correspondingly made shampoo tray illustrated in the present disclosure is exemplary and consequently typifies the style or type of tray which is here visualized. Manifestly this type of a tray is not such in character that it is capable of being expeditiously positioned and then held in place and against displacement. It follows that it is an objective in the instant matter to provide a bracket or an equivalent structure, broadly speaking, embodying therein means which cooperates with intended portions of a conven tional-type shampoo tray and an equally conventional type sink in a manner to incline the tray to assume the desired slope or drainage angle and which insures that it will stay put and, under such circumstances, will bring about the desired working relationship between the receptacle portion of the sink and the part of the tray which inclines and is properly confined therein.

In carrying out a preferred embodiment of the invention and, speaking generically, the tray holding and stabilizing means is interposed between the underneath side of the conventional tray and above the underlying component parts of the sink. This means is characterized chiefly by a tray anchoring hook. The hook is elongated and is actually formed by bending a lengthwise edge portion of the flat plate upwardly to thus provide a return bend and to define a seating and stabilizing hook for the cooperating edge portion of the discharge end of the tray. 7

As will be hereinafter ascertained three embodiments of the invention are utilized. The simpler one (FIGS. 1 and 2) is characterized by a one-piece tray support and rigidifying device which lends itself with requisite nicety to fittingly engage component parts of the tray and wall of the sink, respectively, and which brackets the tray in the desired inclined easy-to-drain position.

The second embodiment of the invention is a folding or collapsible type and has cooperating component parts including the aforementioned hook means which, here again, comprises an elongated plate for the return bend providing a hook to seat and engage the end of the shampoo tray. This plate is hingedly connected with means which is interposed between the underneath side of the tray and surface portions of the sink which means is adjustable whereby the angle of inclination of the tray can be varied to suit varying job requirements.

The third embodiment of the invention which is specifically unlike the second embodiment but on the other hand is generally analogous to the first embodiment is correspondingly simple. Instead of being of one piece as in FIGS. 1 and 2 it is made of two component parts or units, the unit which is fitted into the sump of the sink is again of rigid plate form and the lower end is pro-.

vided with a tri-anchoring hook at the bottom of the plate. The top of the plate is superimposed on a secondary or companion plate which has a hook to engage over the wall of the sink, the two plates being separably but adjustably joined together in overlapping relationship.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following description and the accompanying illustrative, but not restrictive, drawings.

In the drawings, wherein like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the views:

FIG. 1 is a group perspective view showing a generally conventional-type shampoo tray currently used in beauty parlors and the like and, beside it, the bracket-type support and stabilizing device.

FIG. 2 is a view with a portion of the sink broken away and appearing in section and which view illustrates the component parts of FIG. 1 grouped or assembled and cooperating with each other and the sink in positioning and stabilizing the given position of the tray.

FIG. 3 is a view in perspective of a modified tray support and rigidifying device.

FIG. 4 is a view similar in respect to FIG. 2 but which functions to show the modified device and how it is constructed and used.

FIG. 5 is an end view of the device by itself illustrating how the component parts are capable of being folded to assume compact and convenient relationship.

FIG. 6 is a view in perspective which shows the third embodiment or form of the invention.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary view the purpose of which is to show the manner in which the overlapped portion of the plate sections are separately connectible one with the other.

FIG. 8 is a view which in function is similar to FIGS. 2 and 4 in that it shows the conventional type tray fitting into the sink and, in this instance, supported in usable condition by the accommodating bracket-like stabilizing and support means.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2 and first to FIG. 2 it will be seen that the beauty parlor or hairdressers sink (also referred lo as a basin) is denoted generally by the numreal 6 and insofar as the present concept or invention is concerned it may be any ordinary or conventional sink construction. Under the circumstances it embodies a sump or receptacle portion 8 which is marginally surrounded by a depending apron-like rigid wall 10. The junctional portion 12 between the rim of the receptacle or sump and the skirt-wall 10 is rounded and denoted at 12. These components are mentioned in particular inasmuch as the readily attachable and detachable brackettype tray supporter and stabilizer is denoted, as a structural entity or device by the numeral 14.

The shampoo tray 16, insofar as the invention is concerned, is conventional. The plate or body portion 18 is generally flat, the upper edge portion, when in use, is denoted at 20 and the lower edge or drain-age end portion at 22. The customers neck seating recess is denoted at 2-4 and the upstanding marginal rim at 26. To hold the tray 16in the sink 6 and to thus obtain the desired objective the holding, supporting and inclining device 14 can be of one-piece construction. A significant component thereof, here referred to as the principal support means is denoted generally at 28. It comprises a flat rigid plate the tray flatwise and in fact contacts it firmly as illustrated in MG. 2. The return bend 32 merges into an upturned flange 34 which features 3-2 and 34 define a supporting hook and receive the edge portion 22. The means for placing and retaining the means 28 comprises an integral extension which specifically comprises a suitably arched bend or bent portion 36 which is seated conformingly over the crest 12 of the sink, said bend forming a junctional connection with the plate and a depending stabilizing wall 38. This Wall hugs the exterior surface of the skirt or wall 10 and it is connected to an upstanding prop or leg by way of a connecting web &2. The leg 40 is also in the nature of a wall whose upper edge 44 underlies the median portion 18 of the tray thus providing a plate and hook constituting the support and stabilizing means 28, further rigidify-ing means, the wall 38, and a tray sloping prop 40.

Component par-ts similar to these are found in the modified adaptation illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5. It is thought for convenience that insofar as the sink and tray are concerned these are the same as already described and are consequently referred to in FIG. 4 with the same reference numbers used in FIG. 2. The device in this solution of the problem is somewhat more complicated and in fact is made up of a number of hingedly connected component parts which can be collapsed and folded as illustrated in FIG. 5. To start with, the main support and brace means is here denoted by the numeral 28A since it is similar to the means 28. In fact it comprises a corresponding plate 39A, a return bend or bent portion 32A and a terminal flange or lip portion 34A which features 30A, 32A and 34A combine in defining a channel as well as hook means. Therefore, the edge 22 again seats itself in the channel and the lip or flange 34A hooks over the edge with the result that this means 28A functions as does the already described means 28. Now, the means which joins the means 28A to the coa-cting part of the basin differs. In fact this means comprises four component parts which are conveniently referred to as a firs-t panel member 46, second panel member 48, third panel member and fourth panel member 52. The panel member 46 is hingedly connected by suitable hinge means, as at 54 to a cooperating lengthwise edge of the principal stabilizing plate 30A. It will be noted that the transverse edges are provided with keeper notches 56 with which a hook 58 on the end of a finger 60 is selectively connected. The eye-equipped end 62 of the stay 6% is suitably pivoted on a lateral fiange portion 64 along an edge of the second named panel 48. The two panels 46 and 48 are hingedly connected together by appropriate hinging means 66. Similar hinge means 68 serves to connect the flange 64 with a coacting edge of the.

relatively narrow panel member 50. The opposite lengthwise edge of the member 5% is joined by similar hingin-g means 70 to the normal depending final panel or plate member 52. In practice the device is interposed between coacting surface portions of the component parts of the sink or basin 6 and the underneath side of the attachable and detachable shampoo tray 16. The hook and reinforcing means 34A is connected to and provides a principal support for the tray as is accomplished in the form of the invention illustrated in FIG. 2. The panel member 52 cooperating with the adjacent panel member 59 provides means which engages over the crest 12 of the sink. The intervening panels or panel members 46 and 48 assume the general angular relationship illustrated in FIG. 4 when the tray is at the sloping angle there shown in full lines. It will be evident that here the hinge means 66 actually rests in direct contact with the bowl portion of the sink. By properly interrelating the hook members 58 on the stays 6t) withthe keeper notches 56 on the panel member 46 the two panel members 46 and 48 are brought into the desired angular relationship to prop up and support the tray. The dotted lines serve to give an idea of one varied or adjusted position of the tray.

Reference will now be had to the third form or embodiment of the invention which is shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8. The tray 16 is of conventional type which has already been referred to and in fact illustrated in FIG. 2. Accordingly, and for convenience the same reference numerals are employed here (FIG. 8) as used in FIGS. 1 and 2. The means for supporting the tray 16 in the sink 8A is similar to that already described. It follows that the sink embodies the aforementioned apron-like rigid wall 10 and rounded web 12 joined with the main sink wall 13. Corresponding to the fiat rigid plate 30 (previously described) is a similar plate here which is designated by the character 30A since this plate is of rectangular form and the lower edge portion '72 is provided with a suitable upturned tray seating and retaining book 74. This lower part of the plate is conveniently denoted at 76. The upper part 78 is provided with a struck-out tongue 80 which is resilient and has a button-like detent 82 which is designed and adapted to snap selectively into one of the keeper holes 84 provided in the body portion 86 of the plate unit 88. This is the upper plate unit and it is provided along its edges with int-urned hooks 90 which slidingly receives a portion 78 of the plate unit 30A. The upper transverse end portion of this plate is bent upon itself as at 92 and is then downturned as at 94 to provide a hook which conformingly fits over the bend 1'2 and retains itself in position against the skirt wall 10 as illustrated in FIG. 8. It follows that this form or embodiment of the invention is similar to the one-piece arrangement illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 but has the advantage that by being in the form of two overlapping plates adjustably connected together the over-all length or dimension can be extended or shortened as the case may be to accommodate trays 16 of different dimensions and sinks of different depths.

It is a matter of significance that the invention lends itself to practical and helpful use in hospitals, convalescent and similar homes, residential homes, barber and beauty shops and the like.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. A device for supporting, angling and temporarily retaining a conventional type shampoo tray in an inclined gravity draining usable position in the receptacle portion of a sink comprising: a rigid elongated plate adapted to underlie a portion of the tray, said plate provided on a lower edge portion thereof with a return bend terminating in a flange and said bend and flange cooperating with each other in defining a channel and also a hook permitting the cooperating lower edge portion of said tray to be seated in the channel and retained in a position therein by the hook, and a cooperating supporting and anchoring member for said plate having adjustable connection with said plate and provided on an upper portion thereof with a depending flange designed and adapted to engage overa cooperating wall portion of the sink in which the aforementioned tray is supported for use.

2. The structure defined in claim 1 and wherein said member comp-rises a second plate having a portion thereof underlying and slidingly joined with a cooperating por tion of the first named plate and provided along lengthwise edges with turned in hooks, said hooks constituting guides and retaining members for the cooperating edge portions of said plate.

. 3. The structure defined in claim 1 and wherein said member comprises a second plate having a portion thereof 55 underlying and slidingly joined with a cooperating portion of the first named plate and provided along length- Wise edges with turned in hooks, said hooks constituting guides and retaining members for the cooperating edge portions of said plate, one of said plates being provided 5 with a row of longitudinally spaced selectively usable keeper holes, that portion of the first named plate which is slidingly positioned over and in conjunction with said holes being provided With a resilient tongue, said tongue having a detent and said detent constituting a keeper, said 1 keeper being engageable with a selected one of said keeper holes.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 194,708 8/1877 Merrill 248215 1,547,067 7/1925 Ol=pe 248-275 2,007,522 7/1'935 Dilger 24827.5 2,474,572 6/1949 Brose et a1. 4-1S9 3,015,530 1/1962 Anderson 211-88 3,064,272 11/ 1962 Contonwine et a1. 4-159 3,113,677 12/1963 Johnson 21188 JOHN PETO, Primary Examiner.

LAVERNE D. GEIGER, Examiner. 

1. A DEVICE FOR SUPPORTING, ANGLING AND TEMPORARILY RETAINING A CONVENTIONAL TYPE SHAMPOO TRAY IN AN INCLINED GRAVITY DRAINING USABLE POSITION IN THE RECEPTACLE PORTION OF A SINK COMPRISING: A RIGID ELONGATED PLATE ADAPTED TO UNDERLIE A PORTION OF THE TRAY, SAID PLATE PROVIDED ON A LOWER EDGE PORTION THEREOF WITH A RETURN BEND TERMINATING IN A FLANGE AND SAID BEND AND FLANGE COOPERATING WITH EACH OTHER IN DEFINING A CHANNEL AND ALSO A HOOK PERMITTING THE COOPERATING LOWER EDGE PORTION OF SAID TRAY TO 